PC cooling hardware -- Why not implement the features as standards?

[Ultraviolet]

(Originally posted in 'Blogs' until I realized it should actually be here.)

Why does it seem that every special benefit each special heatsink or fan has is mutually exclusive in the market? Instead, shouldn't these benefits just be implemented as STANDARDS? Why not have something as powerful as a Vantec Tornado in a tip-magnetic drive implementation for the sake of increased airflow for less power, side-ventilated like ThermalTake's SilentBoost, resting on top of a Vantec AeroFlow heatsink with heatpipes running from the base toward the top like in CoolerMaster's HHC-001 heatsink, sitting atop a thermo-electric module (see also Peltier effect) like in ThermalTake's SubZero4G, all on top of a nice copper shim and a Socket A processor?

I've only recently started researching PC cooling, but this is the big question that has risen from what I've learned so far. Correct me if I'm wrong, and please do point me in the direction of products that do combine all these special features.

[Ultraviolet]

From the original thread:

Fredrik said:

It's called capitalism. It results in the best products to the best prices.

Ultraviolet said:

That's sarcasm, right? The BEST product would be a combination of all the features I've mentioned, but I don't see that product anywhere!

[Bloodshedder]

What you describe is complete overkill for a standard processor, even for overclocking.

[Ubik]

Thing is, most of these are new or newer features, and even if they aren't considered solely the property of the company that first developed them, it takes a little while for new technologies - even simple changes in execution - to become standardized.

Besides, very few consumer-level users actually use anything like peltiers for cooling, and fewer still actually warrant that use.

[Fredrik]

Ultraviolet said:

That's sarcasm, right? The BEST product would be a combination of all the features I've mentioned, but I don't see that product anywhere!

No. Capitalism is great. Always.

[Ubik]

Besides, isn't capitalism what inspired the companies to develop competing technologies in the FIRST place, to make their product a step above and beyond the rest?

[Ultraviolet]

Bloodshedder said:

What you describe is complete overkill for a standard processor, even for overclocking.

I don't care. It's not like what I'm asking for would actually cost too much for what I'd be getting, and such a cooling solution would be useful for a LONG time. It would be good for more than the processor, cooling things around it as well.

Just so you know the extent of my madness, I do intend to continue to pursue a cooling solution incorporating as much of what I've asked for here as possible, and after that I'm going to place miniature heatsinks on my BIOS, chipset, on-board drive controllers, RAM, chips on all my expansion cards... I'm planning to get some high-powered 92mm fans for in and outtake, and then some fans to mount over my various expansion cards to pump air upward toward that thin back-vent most cases have, and on that I will also have some small fans to pull the air being pumped off of my expansion cards back out of the case.

BTW, I'm not saying you aren't absolutely right. :P

Fredrik: Heh.

Ubik: There are only so many "revolutionary discoveries" that can be made. For a company to hold a patent to a cooling method is just one less thing a very good cooling solution can use to become even better.

[Arioch]

Yeah, that's great man, let's boost the price of the computer by another $500. Nope, won't hurt a bit.

[Ultraviolet]

You DO know you're exaggerating, right?

[Arioch]

Only slightly.

[DOOM Anomaly]

But if they didn't boost the price for them up then it would be an even better bargain. Though I am not sure many companys would do such troublesome things, unless it is sure that they would sell a lot more better, then it might be more in their interest. :D

[Bloodshedder]

Such a product you describe would cost an exorbitant amount of money to make. It would have to sell at a rather high price. Plus, there might be 100 people in the whole world (being optimistic) who wanted it. Any company using simple economic reasoning would figure out that making such a product is definitely not in their best interests.

[Ultraviolet]

Alright then, I guess I'll search for alternatives. 1CoolPC, which HotWax on the ZDoom forums pointed out to me, has a lot of cool products and pretty good prices. Now, knowing product names, I can find even better prices, heh.

I've found Peltier units at around $30, a variety of pretty good heatsinks from $10 to $50 (depending on whether they're shipped with clips and a fan), a nice short hard plastic duct that curves about 30 degrees so I can put a big-ass fan (somewhat quieter and still powerful, or more powerful without being much louder) on it without the fan hub blocking airflow to the heatsink and that 30 degree tilt also means I can point the fan toward the case intake fan -- duct for something like another $10/$20, and as far as fans go... whether I decide to use an 80, 92, or 120mm fan is gonna be what determines whether or not I buy another adapter to go from the duct to the fan, and whether or not I buy more rubber washers and/or full fittings.

Processor cooling aside, tiny heatsinks for RAM and so on come in kits with enough heatsinks to cool two sticks of RAM for something like $10/$20.

I'm planning on sticking some rather large and loud 92mm Vantec Tornados in my case for in/out airflow. They're available as low as $10 in some places.

I could look these inaccurate price estimates up if I wanted to, but I don't feel like it right now. Heh.

[Bloodshedder]

1CoolPC (formerly 3DFXCool) is a very good vendor. I've bought from them several times.

[Ultraviolet]

Glad to hear it. I've heard ONLY good things, actually, and in fact their product information is always enough that I actually know something about the product. I went into that site not knowing much about cooling or the available products, and I think I've learned a lot. Usually vendors don't take the time to tell you anything.

For a lot of stuff, if the price I find elsewhere isn't DRASTICALLY lower elsewhere, I'll buy it from 1CoolPC.

[Sephiroth]

i just use a few fans to cool my system. so i dont really care. never gets above 80 F with just "standard" stuff. i dont want a CPU to be -20 C

[Fredrik]

Sephiroth said:

i just use a few fans to cool my system. so i dont really care. never gets above 80 F with just "standard" stuff. i dont want a CPU to be -20 C

It's interesting when someone uses two different temperature scales just like that :P

[-Jk-]

In theory, a computer would operate at best in -80 Degrees Celsius. In reality, it's pretty much impossible as everything would probably break beause of the cold.

[Ultraviolet]

Damn shoddy hardware!

I think it would take a lot more hardware than I can fit in a case to get to -80C, at least with standard cooling hardware.

[Fredrik]

-Jk- said:

In theory, a computer would operate at best in -80 Degrees Celsius. In reality, it's pretty much impossible as everything would probably break beause of the cold.

I might be wrong, but wouldn't you get the optimal performance in a superconducting environment?

[-Jk-]

Dunno really. But the colder it gets (to a certain degree) the more efficient the electronic flow gets. It doesn't have to be computers. It can be anything with an electronic flow. Power lines etc.

This is what one of my friends told me, and he's studying electronics.

[Sephiroth]

yep its true, cooler the better, in theory. however stuff can break, its expensive and as far as todays computers i dout you would really see the speed boost

[Ultraviolet]

It's not about the speed so much as the potential stability. Cooling is also quite important if you want to overclock...

[Aleaver]

Ultraviolet said:

It's not about the speed so much as the potential stability. Cooling is also quite important if you want to overclock...

This is so true. Cooler can be better.

[Ultraviolet]

I'd like to shoot for a constant 20 degrees C max temp for my processor. :D Nothing in the case should get hotter than that, hopefully.

[DOOM Anomaly]

That'd be cool that if in the summer it was so hot that the cooler of the computer could cool the whole room, that'd boulder. :D

[Ultraviolet]

Your case expells the heated air, so that wouldn't happen.

A few computers can heat a room, though.

[Tobester]

Ultraviolet said:

A few computers can heat a room, though.

back in the summer, at a weekly lan party thing I do, 5-6 computers were running in an apartment. When all of the computers were off, the place was a nice 60f with the AC. When all of them were on, we got around 90-95 on average, and my proc was rarely below 60c.

A few weeks ago it got down to 30 degrees, and the apartment's heat was off cause people are poor etc. When the comps were off we had to wear coats or risks super shrivel of the nuts. When the comps were on, springtime returned :)

[Skunkboy Kyle]

I agree, but on the side of "stupid people." I turned a can of duster upside down to hit my only heatsink which is covered in dust big time and sprayed all the freeon into the computer. I freaked because... well... it IS freeon. I mean the stuff can turn your skin into ice within seconds. Luckily my dad told me just to let it sit for a while and turn it back on and it'll work. I now know to read the instructions on anything I use. And I honestly though duster was just a compressed gas!

[auxois]

The main problem with extremely low temperatures is actually condensation. Easily avoided with some silicone, however.

What tobe says is true. I have only three computers in my room right now - an AthlonXP 2500+ @ 2.43Ghz, a dual AthlonMP 2200, and a dual PPro 233 - and yet those three machines keep my room (which has no flooring, by the way - I stand on foundation) over 20F hotter than the rest of the house.